Advice for newbie caster build

[Raynel]

Hello Everyone,
I am new to the game and so far have just played around a bit to learn how to play. Soon, I will be making a serious character with a friend. Obviously, I don't have much equipment to transfer down, although the ability to make a level 40 character has given me some basic gear choices and money.
My friend is going Summoner: Nature/Earth because he read that it was easier way to play and he tried melee a few times and could not get the hang of it, and died a lot.
I'd like to play a caster, or at least a character that uses a staff. I don't actually have to use casting skills, I just like having a staff. I'd like at least one of my masteries to be different from his. Everything I can find online for casters is old and doesn't include the Atlantis extra skills. Spirit has been recommended, and I'm leaning toward that if you can confirm that it's a good "caster-eske" mastery for a new player. I have no idea what to do for my second mastery... Dream maybe?
There are just so many choices you have to make starting at level 2 I feel overwhelmed and I have heard you may not even get through the game if you build improperly, so I'm somewhat paralyzed with indecision.

[Lobo de hielo]

Rarely play caster myself, not my game play style.

Look here for a lot of useful guides https://titanquestfans.net/index.php?topic=1126.0

Honestly starting at level 2 will be a lot easier than starting level 40.

1. By the sound of it you have no gear to "gift" your build. I am not talking armour or weapons (which of course you need) but charms, relics, recipes, jewelry. These you collect as you go and good ones make the whole difference between a good/ survivable build and one that is mweh.

2. Being able to build from the start you will gain knowledge of which are good skills for your play style. You can respec your build later in the game (not attribute points), roughly level18/ 20 at Delphi.

Long time ago tried a Oracle and it was fun. Spirit - Ternion build, Liche and some useful debuffs. Storm - Spell Breaker, Squall, Storm Surge, Lighting Bolt.

[sarcastic_godot]

Spirit + Dream IMHO.

Almost as good on the defense as it is on the offense.

- The two staff-specific attacks - Ternion as close-range flamethrower critterbroom, Psionic Ray to kill the rear ranks AND the guys in front of them.
- Two great melee-range debuffs make those annoying stabby-slashy-plonky-bite-y types weak and easy kills.
- An excellent choice of stuns and debuffs. Or decent pets. (I advise to choose the former)
- powerful nuke that also leech-heals you.
- wide range anti-undead aura.

...and it can be played with green rarity gear. Well, OK, Legendary might require some farming, to get your DA and resistance act together. Also, Dream is a robust starting choice, you get your leech via your aura and have a decent base attack.

[redgreen999]

I second the Spirit/Dream combo. I play it without a staff though. I found a throwing weapon that gives +2 to dream and use a shield ( the one that give 15% XP, -15 req and +300 DA. )

Eventually I maxed out both masteries with 40 points. My particular build is a bit gear dependent. I have regen maxed at -80 with -44 regen from archmage claps, -20 from weapon, etc.... So My life drain skill can fire every 1.2 seconds. Life drain isn't really good until you have the Atlantis highest tier add on skill. Then it becomes God like but only with regen equipment.

I basically petrify with that dream skill, and life drain and then soul vortex everything. Except skeletons which just get the pertrify skill and another dream skill with no soul drain, which doesn't work on skels.

I was thinking of doing a write up of this character (who is named Grant) because he was one of my very 1st and he was a melee type all the way to level 80. At which point I reskilled him as a mage. It just shows how flexible Spirit/Dream can be. btw I bascially sucked as melee until another of my characters farmed for my Grant Character to give him a decent weapon. I was doing like 1,800 damage as melee in Legendary at about level 60. This was pathetic, lol. But I found a way to slog through 3 to 4 minute mob battles like every 100 feet in game scale. So I learned the hard way, but found it very rewarding and fun still. Like the challenge.

So while this build can be melee, it is gear dependant for that, But most builds are in Legendary. Even so it makes a much better mage either as a Tenion build as suicidal_godot suggested, or as Petrify/life drain caster.

I can give a few basic pointers if your friend wants to play as melee and be able to deal with mobs. Wouldn't pick spirit for that as a 1st time run through. Hunter/Warrior is good with a spear but might be harder to set up as it needs a lot of speed equip. The simplest beginner melee ( not very equipment dependant) is probably warrior/defense or defense/dream.

The key for melee is CC (crowd control) You have to slow the mobs somehow. For warrior, this is War Horn to stun. Green weapons with a relic or charm give you the best options generally to get exactly what you need. If early on you are not killing stuff fast enough, you need an essence, later an embodiment, or incarnation that slows attack by either 50% or 66%. Not the one that slows movement, the one that slows attack speed. If you do enough damage then this is not needed and instead add something to your weapon that gives bonus to attack speed.

The other big thing for melee is to have a weapon with 14% attack damage converted to health. 14% or higher preferred. Best case is to have both of these. It can be on an amulet instead of the weapon. It would act the same in game. In tough spots, warrior has banner which will save you dozens of times over.

The first decent green MI swords are perhaps at the start of act 3 from the Lizards there. Later in act 3, those tigers have some nice drops. If your lucky you fine one with 5 attributes.

Plus speed is a must. So good weapons have attributes like.
+33% to attack speed
-14% attack damage converted to health
-50 slow attack
+25 % physical damage

Finally ( this is mostly for melee but applies to any build that is getting hit a ton) you need your DA high enough so your not getting hit as much or critted by melee mobs. Not that important in normal. BY Epic you try to get 650 DA and 1100-1300 ideally by Legendary. The faster you can kill mobs the less important DA becomes. That is why Defense is good because it has a skill that ups DA. Warrior has a skill that ups OA which allows you to crit more often. OA and DA are vital to get as high as possible for melee builds.

Just mentioned melee basics in case your friend just gave it up out of frustration.

[Raynel]

Wow, thanks for the advice.
I don't think my friend wants to go melee anymore, he seems happy with his pure Summoner pet build.
Having now tried it out, I actually rather like throwing weapons as well as staff. I will consider your advice to have a shield and throwing weapon.
Do you think something like this would work with a pet focus, with Liche+Nightmare? Could I build it in a way that I provided debuffs/CC while the pets beat the enemy? I think that would be fun to support my friend as well.

[redgreen999]

Originally posted by Raynel:

Wow, thanks for the advice.
I
Do you think something like this would work with a pet focus, with Liche+Nightmare? Could I build it in a way that I provided debuffs/CC while the pets beat the enemy? I think that would be fun to support my friend as well.

I think your friend as a summoner and you as diviner would be perfect pet combo and devaste the mobs. Liche and Nightmare can be set to aggressive in most situations and basically tank. Your friends heart of oak will buff all the pets. Nightmare buffs all pets within its range with + damage and health/energy regen.

There are 2 ways to go equipment wise. You can wear an ammy and a ring to aid your pets. Or you could get plus skills equipment. Perhaps even a combo of depending on what you find.

Trance of empathy will give all pets within its radious damage reflection, which with that many pets would be nice. In legendary you might need the resistance reduction from trance of wrath instead. But if your friend is using plague, than the empathy aura might work the entire game.

Maybe go distortion wave for main CC early. The 1st tier is the best of that with its slow ability. I usually skill out of it and max distort reality once its available. Once I had enough +skill gear, I use both again. Some like the skill that you disappear and reappear with a bonus to damage, but its recharge is longer and I don't think its worth the points or really needed. Personal preference here, but you would need points for your 2 pets.

Liche IMO is best pet in game. Even my level 81 will notice the drop off if its gone, which doesn't happen often anymore. But Outsider is good also and is an extremely aggressive tank. Its recharge is quite long without any regen gear. So its best saved for the toughest mobs.

One point in 'Vision of Death' is all that is needed for a nice panic button if the mobs get out of hand.

If you want the pets to do most of the work, go plus skills armor and maybe a green ammy with the charm that gives vitality resist added. Then an artifact that aids pets also. Unless you need resistance more. If you wanted to dole out more of the damage with pets assisting, then go with more regen gear. You can find the balance here that works best. If your pets are getting overwhelmed in say act 3, then maybe more regen to cast your dream skills that do CC more often.

Using a keyboard, I almost always need 2 rows of skills when I play Diviner. I press Y and I put the aura's that don't need to be recast here unless disrupted. Then I press Y again to go back to my main row of skills so I have instant access to all the summons and CC skills.